Chapter 5

Anastasia sat in her tent eating by herself surrounded by dozens of candles. The tent swayed gently against the harsh winds of Siberia outside. She couldn't understand why anyone wanted to live in this place and wondered how the Sabirs were able to endure the harsh weather. Safiya once lived in this area and Anastasia was sure that the winters didn't faze her at all.

As she dipped her warm bread in yogurt, Safiya entered and bowed her head.

Ana smiled, "has Madhiya finally come to a decision?"

"No, khatun," she regretfully said. "There is a young girl here to see you. She says she has information about the attack but wishes to that no harm come to her if Madhiya finds out."

She sighs and grabs the black beaded headdress and placed it on her head. She waved her hand and a servant took the platter of food away.

"Send her in."

Safiya pulled back the tent flap and in came a petite pale faced girl with dark hair, dressed in a fur coat, covered in snow. Anastasia nodded her head and with that Safiya took her leave. The girl kept her head low and her gaze to the floor.

"Khatun," the girl greeted and curtsied. Anastasia smiled softly.

"What information do you have for me? Whatever you say will not leave this tent." she instructed and the girl remained quiet. "You may look at me. I'm not going to harm you."

Finally the fair skinned girl lifted her head slowly and met eyes with the khatun. She breathed in heavily and was speechless all of a sudden. She feared for her life coming here. If her governor found out she surely would be beheaded.

"What is your name?"

"R-Rasheda," she answers.

"Rasheda. Tell me what you know," she prompts her and Rasheda fidgets with her coat. Ana sighed. "If you withhold information from me I can arrest you. Speak now."

"I…I saw Madhiya's Alps riding towards the Nezak tribes. Umm, you should know, khatun, that…her Alps do what they please. They do not need her permission to leave the encampment. They –they often buy slaves for her and trade them throughout Asia."

Anastasia's eyes widened. "Is that all?"

"Yes, khatun."

"You may leave now."

Rasheda bowed her head slightly. "Madhiya will not know of this, right?"

"No. Your secrets are safe with me. Go," she waved her hand and the young girl pulled the hood over her hair and quickly left.

Safiya came back into the tent and saw the queen's face contorted and eyes filled with hatred and anger. "Do you need anything else?"

Ana lifts her eyes slowly to stare at the Sabir woman. "Yes. Bring Madhiya to me."

Xena and Gabrielle wandered into the nearest village and they never felt more out of place than they did at this moment. Everyone gawked at them like they were strange oddities to behold. Gabrielle ogled all of the gorgeous fabrics and traditional Chinese dresses, shoes and hats.

She walked over to a merchant who was all smiles, although he had a few missing teeth. She grinned back at him and bowed curtly and pointed to the red and black silk robes. He nods profusely and gladly pulled the robes off the hanger and lays it gently in her arms.

"Wow," she marveled. "Xena, look at this robe! Anastasia would look great in this. We should buy something for her while we're here."

The lieutenant rolled her eyes. "We're not here to shop for dresses, Gabrielle. We're sent here to buy goose feathers, bellows and pots for whatever reason…"

"I'm definitely going to come back for that. Ana looks very good in silk. I hope her visit with Cera is going okay."

Xena nodded. "Hmm." She walked up to a butcher and waved her hand at General Tan Daoij. "Tell this man we need fifty pounds of goose feathers," she tells him, "and how we can easily get them. Price is not a concern for us."

He bowed. "Yes, lieutenant." He walked over to the butcher and began speaking in his mother tongue quickly and efficiently.

While Xena waited patiently on the sidelines, Gabrielle looked around and turned to see a man wearing a black coat with a hood, concealing his identity. She narrowed her eyebrows and pretended not to notice him. She wandered off to go look at the pottery across the way and the man was following her from afar, lurking.

She walked over to the next merchant and the man lingered behind a cart of vegetables and fresh fish. Gabrielle disappeared behind a shack, waiting to see if the lurker was to follow her again. She pulled out her Sais from her boots and held them against her chest.

The man came round and she grabbed him by the collar and rammed him into the shack. "Why are you following me?!" she questioned and held the Sais to his throat then ripped off the hood.

What she didn't expect to see was a dear friend of Csaba and Farah. She pulled back and he breathed heavily with wide brown eyes. "Wang?"

She playfully slapped his shoulder with a big happy smile. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

Wang put a hand to his beating chest and gave a nervous smile. "Governor…so nice to see you again. I didn't mean to be a lurker but I can't be seen here." He pulled the hood over his head. He grabbed her arm and pulled her aside away from prying eyes and ears.

"I was told by Princess Bosi that you, Xena and Arielle were here to go up against Prince Houfei," he whispered.

"Yes, that's right. What's wrong? You seem nervous."

He looks around cautiously. "Princess Bosi assigned me to spy on her brother. I've been working for him. This is an order directly from her. Not even the emperor knows."

She slipped her Sais back into her boots. "I need to tell Xena about this. Arielle is the new commander now. She's back at the camp waiting for us. Come with me."

"No, no!" he gripped her wrist firmly. "I cannot be seen with you or any Huns for that matter. There are eyes everywhere. I will come to the camp tonight. The princess advised me to help you as much as I can."

Gabrielle sighed and didn't really like this idea all that much. "Alright. I'll tell Xena and Arielle. We'll be waiting for you at the camp."

He hurried away in the crowd, disappearing as quickly as he came. Gabrielle scratched her head and then returned to the butcher to find her wife looking for her. Xena half smiled and noticed her blonde wife seemed a bit disturbed or uneasy by the expression on her face.

"Where did you run off to?"

"Oh, you know me, just shopping," she laments. "Were you able to negotiate a deal?"

Xena looked over at Tan Daoij who was still talking firmly with the butcher. "Not sure yet. Something wrong?"

Gabrielle grabbed her wife's arm and walked away from the butcher and other merchants. "A man was following me. I found out it was Wang and we spoke briefly. I can't say anything right now but he's coming to the camp tonight. He has something that might help us against Prince Houfei."

The brunette nods, "we didn't see him in the imperial city. Isn't he good friends with the emperor?"

"I remember he was a commander for Emperor Liu."

"Why was he following you in secret then? Liu didn't mention him at all when we met."

"I don't know."

Xena frowned. "I smell a rat. We'll find out what he has to offer tonight."

Tan Daoij finished speaking with the butcher and walked over to the lieutenant and governor who stopped talking and stared with stoic faces. He appeared rather distressed and frustrated after speaking with the mouthy butcher. He bows from the waist and Xena folded her arms, waiting for a plausible answer.

"He will give us thirty pounds of goose feathers but they can't be collected today. We can come back tomorrow for the feathers. He doesn't have enough geese in his shop. He said we can go to the next village to his friend's shop and we can get the other half of the feathers."

She exhaled deeply and didn't feel like going on a wild goose chase, pun intended, for goose feathers. "We'll take the thirty pounds. We don't have time to go to another village. I'll send someone to get the remaining feathers."

"Yes, lieutenant," he says and yells back at the butcher to pound up the feathers and pack them in bags. "Should I tell the men to load the bellows and pots in the wagon?"

She nodded and turned to her wife as soon as he left. "Your clandestine meeting with Wang concerns me. He shouldn't be lurking in the shadows like that."

Gabrielle too, felt the same way. Something was off about that. Wang used to be the emperor's right hand man and now he was working for Princess Bosi and Prince Houfei simultaneously.

"You don't think we should trust him? He said he works for Princess Bosi."

"We don't know his intentions. We'll treat him like an enemy until we know we can trust him. I'll hand him over to Arielle so she can interrogate him."

Gabrielle smiled. "Her first interrogation. I hope she will live up to your expectations."

Xena shook her head. "You know who is good at interrogations?" she hints and her wife shrugged a shoulder. "Anastasia. She is brilliant at that. It was probably the only good thing she did while she was commander for that short period of time."

"She is very diplomatic. Kreka would be proud of her. I think she's done a great job as queen mother so far."

Xena lowered her gaze, thinking of her daughter. They'd been separated for almost two months and she missed her a lot. She hated to be away from any members of her family for a long time and now that she's aged, she felt a pain in her when her daughter left her for long periods of time.

Adjusting her headdress she put on her game face and walked towards the wagons. "Finally Arielle can put that big mouth of hers to use tonight. We should head out before it gets dark."

Madhiya was brought to the khatun's tent by Badr and Safiya. She stared at Anastasia sitting on the floor eating out of several small bowls on the silver platter. Anastasia lifted her eyes slowly and smiled gestured to the pillow on the floor opposite her.

"Sit, please."

The governor clenched her jaw and laced her hands together. "Why did you need to see me? I have not come to a decision about your offer yet, khatun."

Anastasia nodded. "Sit with me," she repeats herself and Madhiya creased her brows. "I'm not going to say it again."

Slowly, Madhiya lowered herself and sat on the pillow, staring at the platter of assorted foods. Her stomach knotted, sitting so close to the Hun queen made her uneasy and she had no idea why she was called to the tent but given the queen's silence, she didn't expect good things from this meeting.

Ana broke the bread in half and extended her arm over the platter, giving her offerings. The governor raised her eyebrow and Ana's smile widened. Madhiya took the bread cautiously with no intention of sharing a meal with this woman at all.

"I've heard that you are involved in a slave trade across Asia. Is that true?"

"Yes." She had no reason to lie and since she was not in the Hun Empire, she could as she pleased.

"Attila had many slaves. His first wife was a slave once, until he married her. You remember her, right? Cera?"

Madhiya held the flat bread in her lap and stared into the queen's blue eyes. She inhaled sharply. "Yes, I remember Cera. I've met her only once when Attila came to my tribe with Bleda."

The khatun nodded. "And tell me; was she kind to you?"

"She was a very nice woman from what I remember."

"And was she beautiful? What did she look like?"

Madhiya tilted her head with furrowed brows, trying to understand the queen's game she was playing. She didn't understand why the sudden interest in Attila's long forgotten wife.

"She had red hair, fair skin and green eyes. I do not remember anything other than that. Why do you ask me about Cera?"

"Curiosity. So, about this slave trade. How do you gather up these slaves to be traded? Who do you do business with?"

Madhiya chuckled. "Khatun, I am not obligated to tell you how I conduct my business. I am not part of your empire. Despite what you may think, my people don't live in poverty. I make quite a bit of coin trading slaves across Asia."

"And is that why you were seen in Assyria years ago? Do you also buy slaves there as well?"

Her smile faded. "I went to check the slave market in Aleppo. I heard they had many women there. I bought a few slaves and never went back there."

Anastasia sat back against the pillows and smiled at the uneasy governor. "Don't think that I don't have eyes following you everywhere you go, Madhiya. I know very well of what you were doing in Assyria. My daughter invited you to her home. I heard you two had a long conversation. It's been a few years but I think you can recall the conversation, can't you?"

The governor's eyes widened and she looked around the tent. Living in seclusion she didn't know much about the royal clan of Attila in Pannonia since she'd been exiled for several years. Now, she was nervous to say anything more since the queen revealed that the young girl, Arielle, was her daughter.

"I know you haven't come to a decision about my offer but I'd like to entice you some more, governor." Ana began and saw the tan woman's cheeks pale. "I was told you have a large amount of Alps at your service. Are they good fighters and hunters?"

Madhiya lifted her chin. "Yes…khatun, they are. I trust them with my life."

"I'd like to buy your best Alps for my empire. I need more men for my elite guards. I will pay a generous amount."

Madhiya smiled at the offer. "I will pick the best Alps for you, khatun. I'm sure they'd love to be in your service."

Ana bowed her head curtly and called out, "gardiyanlar!"

Badr and Safiya entered the tent and kept their gaze low.

"Take Madhiya back to her yurt. I will speak with her in the morning."

Badr nodded and grabbed the governor's arm, hoisting her off the floor. Safiya was to follow them out.

"Safiya," Ana said and the Sabir froze. "Stay. I'd like to speak with you alone."

She sighed and turned around. "Yes, khatun?"

"Madhiya is going to give me her best Alps tomorrow and then I will return to Pannonia. You can take Soran with you back to Balaam. I will no longer need your help. But I do have this." She pulled out a letter incased in a metal holder. "I trust you will give this to Navaz when you return."

Safiya took the letter and stared at the queen with blank brown eyes.

"I hope to see you in Pannonia again one day. I'd love for you to see the changes I've made."

Safiya tersely bowed her head. "I will go back to my tent now. Goodnight, khatun."

Ana sat up. "Safiya." She prevented the woman from leaving once more. "I hope that one day you can forgive me. I wasn't trying to hurt you. That was the furthest thing on my mind at the time."

"Anastasia, you are my queen and I respect you as my superior and I will be entrusted to you whenever you need. But as a woman, I cannot forgive you for what you did. Iyi geceler." She gave her departing words and quickly left.

Anastasia sighed and folded her arms.

In the camp within the Himalayas, Arielle was wrestling in the snow with one of her male soldiers. Her hair once straight had fallen into her natural curls. Bayan watched from afar, drinking rice wine gifted by some of the Chinese soldiers that accompanied them. He kept his eyes on Arielle as she trapped the soldier into a headlock and flipped him over on the ground.

She laughed and playfully slapped his soldier then helped him up. She ruffled her wild curls and looked over to see Bayan staring at her. She raised her eyebrow and turned around, ignoring his constant gazing.

She grabbed a ribbon off her wrist and tied her long curly locks into a ponytail and smiled at her brother's uncle. "Ernak! Will you spar with me?"

He looked to her and nodded to a soldier he was talking to and sipped his wine. "No thank you, commander."

"Ah, come on. You aren't scared are you?"

"I'd rather not beat you to a pulp. Besides, it's against regulations for me to spar with a commander." He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a charming smile then walked off to another group of soldiers.

She huffed and folded her arms. Being in the camp was boring to say the least. Nothing had happened since the attack against Prince Houfei's men and she was waiting on her supplies for days now.

Bayan poured out the rice wine and made his way over to his wife and tapped her shoulder. "I'll spar with you."

Arielle scoffed. "Get away from me, Bayan."

"You want to fight so badly, huh? Why not spar with me? I am an excellent fighter as you know."

She cocked an eyebrow and brushed by him to grab some water. He pulled her back and flipped her over onto the ground, instigating the fight. Ernak turned around when the camp fell silent and he rolled his eyes at the two young couple.

"This ought to be good," he mutters.

Arielle growled and dusted the snow off her fur coat. "I told you to stay out of my way!" she yells at Bayan.

He pushed her backwards and she lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar. They fell against a table of drink and bowls of food. Several soldiers sitting at the table had food spilled on their laps and clothes. They quickly ran out of the way while the commander and Harran king fought on the broken table.

Xena and Gabrielle entered the camp with the wagon of supplies. Gabrielle held up her hand, halting the horses and wagon. She and her wife stared with gaped mouths at the squabbling couple, spitting foul words in each other's faces and rolling around in the snow.

"What the hell is this…" Xena grumbled.

"Maybe we should let them fight?" suggested Gabrielle.

Xena looked around at all of the soldiers clapping and talking with one another. Arielle rolled over on top of Bayan and head butted his forehead and Xena closed her eyes, breathing in heavily. She dropped her bag of coin on the ground and marched over to the drummers on the sidelines, drinking.

The young soldiers stood up and bowed their heads. She snatched the large drumstick out of the young man's hand and pushed them out of the way, making her way to the large gong.

Gabrielle pinched the bridge of her nose. They obviously couldn't leave anyone alone in this camp without something happening.

Xena sounded the gong and everyone in the camp silenced themselves. Arielle and Bayan stopped fighting at the sound and quickly pulled themselves together and got off the ground. The sound was a signal for intruders invading and they turned around to see Xena next to the gong.

Arielle's cheeks turned bright red and Bayan slowly backed away with his head hung. She stared into her grandmother's furious eyes and bowed her head, ashamed of her behavior.

"Arielle," she says calmly, "I would like to speak with you in your tent."

"I'd rather not," the commander muttered.

"Buraya gel!" she screamed and Arielle didn't talk back and ran across the camp.

Gabrielle exhaled deeply and head over to Ernak and the group of soldiers. She eyed the rice wine they were all drinking. "Can I have some of that?" she says with a big grin.

Ernak grinned, bobbing his head slowly. "Ah, rough day in the village, aye Gabrielle?" he teased her and handed over a cup of wine. "Xena never uses our mother tongue unless she's angry. Arielle's really done it now."

"And that's why I am not stepping anywhere near that tent," she told him. "Anyway, I have some news. Wang is coming here to give us information about Prince Houfei. We met in the village and he says that he's a spy for Princess Bosi. He's also working for Houfei. Xena is skeptical of his intentions and wants him to be interrogated. She's going to hand him over to Arielle."

He rubbed his beard. "She makes a good call. Just because he's spying for the princess doesn't mean he doesn't have an agenda of his own." He sighs deeply. "I must say, Gabrielle, I'm a bit out of element here. We don't know a lot about Chinese culture and their laws."

"Xena said the same thing."

"Maybe we should've brought Csaba with us. He's more familiar with Chinese customs."

They both heard Xena yelling inside the tent and widened their eyes.

He leans over, "you gonna check it out?"

"Nope."

Xena paced around the tent with folded his arms and Arielle was silent the entire time during the lecture she was being given. She halted and stood in front of her granddaughter's slouched stance.

"Look at me."

Arielle turned her cheek away.

"I said, look at me!"

She finally lifted her head slowly and regretfully stared into her grandmother's fearsome eyes.

"You make me regret giving you this position, Arielle. You disappoint me. Instead of focusing on battle you are fighting with your husband like a mad woman. What would've happened if that gong sound was not a farce? What if someone came into the camp and raided everything you had and killed all of your men? What would you do then?"

Arielle inhaled. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to disappoint you but you make it so hard."

"Me? You dig yourself into these holes, Arielle. I've got nothing to do with it."

"Yes you do. You're always yelling at me!"

"Well if you would do your job then I wouldn't have to!" she paused briefly and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Your mother was nothing like this when she was commander. She wasn't the greatest but at least she didn't behave like a child."

Arielle grimaced. "I am not my mother, grandma. I never will be. You said I have potential to be the best commander but everything I do isn't good enough because I'm not doing things your way. And by the way, I didn't start the fight with Bayan," she adds softly. "He instigated it. I told him to leave me alone."

Xena relaxed her shoulders and uncrossed her arms. "I know having him here is bothering you but you need to find a way to either ignore him or settle your differences. Do not let his presence cloud your judgment."

The young commander nods.

"Gabrielle told me to be patient with you and I am trying my best but if you keep pulling stunts like this –"

"I won't. I promise. I won't do anything like that again."

Xena raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Alright…" she relents. "You have a very important job to do tonight. Wang is coming to the camp and you're going to interrogate him to see if you can squeeze out any information he has about Prince Houfei."

Arielle's eyes lit up and felt a rush of energy soar through her body. "Interrogation…" she taps her chin. "I shall not disappoint you grandma!" she brushed by her to leave and Xena grabbed her arm, forcefully pulling her backwards a foot.

"Do not call me that here."

"Oh…right, I forgot. By the way did you get all the stuff I asked for?"

Xena narrowed her eyes. "Almost. I was only able to get thirty pounds of feathers. Arielle, what are you going to do with bellows, pots and feathers?"

"You'll see. Don't you have faith in me?"

"I wish I could choke you sometimes."

"Save it for the interrogation!" Arielle beamed like a small child and ran out of the tent to inform the soldiers of their special guest soon to come.

Gabrielle was busy chatting with the soldiers and Ernak when she saw her wife emerge from Arielle's tent and march down the hill through the snow. She excused herself from the group and walked over to her.

"Xena, how did it go?" she asked, barely able to keep up with her. "Xena?"

Although she heard Gabrielle, she had her mind focused on someone else. Glaring at the Harran king, she marched over to Bayan and grabbed him by the mink collar and shoved him into a tree. The male soldiers slowly retreated.

Bayan's eyes enlarged and he held his hand on the hilt of his sword just in case he might need it.

"You stay away from my granddaughter," she hissed.

"You…you can't speak to me that way. I am a king."

She emits a crooked smile. "I don't care if you're a king, Bayan. What are you going to do? Draw your sword on me? In front of all these people? Poor choice." She gave him a hefty shove and he banged his head on the tree. "I don't like you, Bayan. Don't get in Arielle's way again and jeopardize this mission or I will treat you like I do with all my enemies. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Xena."

"Good." She smiled and pat his shoulder and turned to the governor who casually drank the rice wine. "Gabrielle, come with me to work on drawing a map of the area."

The blonde governor waved at Bayan, pretending like she saw nothing and walked with her wife to their tent. "I think you scared him," she whispered.

"That was the idea. I can't have him in Arielle's way. If it were up to me, I would've sent him back to Harran."

"Were you…hard on her? I could hear you from outside."

"Not more than usual. She told me Bayan started the fight and I believe her. She was very apologetic. We'll see how she does with Wang later."

In one of the yurts that were spared, Yana's belongings were untouched by the invasion and she wished they would've attacked her yurt instead of her sister's. She stood over a table filled with her jewelry and held the onyx earrings that Cera gave her. Tears of silence fell into her hands as she kept gawking at the earrings.

Mirac walked into the yurt and eyed his elder sister with her back turned. "Yana…"

She placed the earrings back into her jewelry box and wiped her cheeks and spun around, smiling softly at her little brother. "Mirac, have you heard anything from the queen?"

"No, not yet."

His eyes drifted over to the secluded bedroom and sighed. He knew that Inzhu was in that room. She hadn't come out ever since the attack. She felt guilty that she was unable to save her children and put the blame all on her. He couldn't get the image of his two nieces and two nephews dead on the ground out of his head. He wished he could've saved them but he couldn't fathom the feeling his sister felt losing all of her children in one night –one short night.

"How is Inzhu?"

Yana shook her head. "She is not doing well. She is traumatized. I don't know if she will ever overcome this."

He looked to the floor in silence.

"Mirac," she says and he looked into her light eyes. "You will find Cera and bring her back here."

"Yes, sister, we'll find her. Anastasia Khatun won't stop until we find her. She has alerted Cera's brother in Pannonia about the situation."

Yana raised her eyebrow. "You will do whatever the khatun asks you to do. You'll obey all her orders even if you disagree with her."

He smiles and kissed her hand. "Of course, Yana."

"Bring Maxim and Aybek here. I wish to speak with them," she spoke of her two other younger brothers. "Have you written Sanzhar about this?"

"Yes, I wrote him the day after the attack. He should be on his way over. I will go fetch our brothers," he bowed his head and left.

She folded her arms and stared at the bedroom where her little sister admitted herself into seclusion. She was more worried about her sister and her brother's wives who also lost their children. She was not surprised that her brother, Sanzhar, didn't come right away when he heard of the attack. The ride to the tribe shouldn't have taken more than a couple of days. She didn't have the best relationship with her brother who was only a year younger than her but in times of war; he was needed and called upon in dire situations.

Weeks passed and Cera felt like time went so slowly here. The journey across the sea by ship was difficult and she was mishandled by several of the men. When she arrived at the imperial palace in Japan she was overcome by the size of the palace. She'd never seen anything like it before. Japan was unlike her home in Pannonia.

She hadn't seen the rest of the palace beyond these walls of the dark room she remained in for the last couple of weeks. She and the other Hun girls that were brought over were separated. Now, she was tied by her wrists and ankles with special knotted ropes. She put up such a fight when she arrived that the guards knocked her out and tied her up.

Cera leaned her head against the wall, staring at the floor for hours, or days, she didn't know. She heard the door open, which was uncommon. Slowly, she turned her head and looked over her shoulder. There were two women, dressed in fine silk robes and veils covering their hair.

She furrowed her eyebrows and shifted on the floor to get a better look at the women. They were incredibly short, noticeably shorter than the women in her family. Not even the rest of the Hun women were this short usually.

The pale faced women sized up all the girls who were kept in the room. Cera noticed one woman in particular eyeing the women and whispering into her cohort's ear.

The two women stopped in front of Cera and gawked at her fair skin and auburn hair. "Kimi, who is this one?"

"Hana Shojo, she is a Huna."

The shojo lifted her eyebrow, staring at Cera. "Huna, you said?" she asks and Kimi nods. "Stand up for me, Huna." She instructed and Cera's eyes drifted to her bound ankles. "Oh I see. Untie her!" she shouts at the guards.

Cera's ankles were free and she stood up steadily, hardly able to keep her balance. The shojo's black eyes widened at the height of the young red haired princess.

"She is rather tall. What is your name?"

Kimi whispered into Hana Shojo's ear. "She is mute, shojo."

Hana grinned. "What a remarkable quality. Take her to the red room." She said and Kimi grabbed Cera by the arm. "Why were her wrists and ankles bound?"

"She resisted a great deal when she arrived so we had to detain her but she has been on her best behavior lately."

After Cera was escorted out of the dark dungeon-like room she'd been kept in, she was bathed by a few women and the water was not warm, but downright freezing. She missed the nice heated bathhouses back home. She was beginning to wonder if her family would ever find her, being so far away and off the grid. She knew that her mother was probably doing her best but she had to rely on herself from now on in this strange land. She was a foreigner here but so far, she wasn't treated horribly as of yet.

The servants dressed her in a sheer white gown and she almost refused to put it on as it showed more of her body than she wanted. Not even would she wear something like this to bed with Mirac. She'd never expose herself this much. Now she really missed the cotton dresses of her homeland.

She was taken to the 'red room' that the shojo mentioned earlier. She walked through the hallway of columns draped in red fabric. She peered through the curtains and saw women of all shapes, sizes, skin and hair colors, on floor beds and couches. Her eyes widened when she lingered too long at two fair skinned women, completely naked, sitting together on a couch, feeding each other an assortment of fruits.

The servants uttered something in their native language and pushed her forward. Cera snarled at the short women but kept walking. She took in a few deep breaths, ignoring the incessant moaning and laughter in the background.

She entered a hallway with two rows of women, also dressed in sheer white gowns. She was placed at the end of the line and couldn't help but notice all of the women were from different parts of the world –blondes, brunettes, curly and straight hair, short and long, tall and petite, thin and curvy.

Hana Shojo hurried into the room and clapped her hands to grab the girls' attention. "Princess Tashibana is entering the harem!" she announced.

Cera's heart dropped. Harem? Dear god, what have I gotten myself into?

Princess Tashibana sauntered in the red room, dressed in black silk robes. Cera side-eyed the woman and got a good look at the woman's incredibly pale face, probably dressed in face paint, red lips and winged black liner around her eyes. Her midnight hair was dressed nicely in gold combs and flowers tucked behind her ears.

The imperial princess walked down the aisle, admiring the beautiful girls before her. She stopped in front of a few and tapped their shoulder and her servants took away the girls she chose. Cera kept her eye on what was happening and everyone around her was silent. This was an advantage she had: her silence.

Tashibana stopped in front of Cera and lifted her chin, inspecting her body and long waist length hair. "Hana Shojo, tell me about this one."

"She is from the Huna lands, princess."

"A redheaded Huna," she smirked. "I was told there were other Huna here."

"I did not select them, your highness. She has a special quality. She is mute."

Tashibana nodded. "A wise gift that has been bestowed upon you, Huna," she says and Cera tried not to show any sign of disgust. "Such fair skin," she traced her finger along Cera's arm. "Take your gown off."

Cera froze and stared into the princess' dark eyes.

"You've lost your tongue yet you do not take commands lightly, Huna. Disrobe!"

Hana Shojo nudged her head to the servants and they cut the clasps on Cera's shoulders and the gown fell to the floor. The Hun princess gasped and wrapped her arms around her bare breasts. Tashibana slapped her hands away and eyed her slender frame and sizeable breasts, trim waist and thighs.

Tashibana nodded with a soft grin. "Very pleasing to the eye. Take her to the private chamber." She instructs and steps forward, staring into Cera's brown fragile eyes.

"Since I do not know your name and you haven't the tongue to reveal it, I will gift you a name. From now on your name will be Koryu; a very fitting name for you, Huna. It means red dragon."

In the middle of Arielle's interrogation, Gabrielle stepped into the tent and gasped at the sight of Wang. Surely, Arielle was very gifted in beating people to death by the wounds and bruises all over Wang's face and arms.

Arielle turned and smiled. "Gabrielle, you've come just in time. I got a handful of information out of him."

"That's…very good. What did he say?"

"He gave me all of Houfei's hideout locations. He will tell you where they are and you can mark them on the map." She turns to the beaten Chinese soldier and smiles. "Oh and he is going to return to Houfei's camp in this condition. He will tell the prince that he was assaulted by Huns. Won't you, Wang?"

He licked his swollen lips and bobs his head slowly. He was barely able to keep his head up at this point. He didn't know how long he'd been here but he didn't expect to be beaten so badly by his so-called allies.

"I have a task for you and gran –I mean, the lieutenant," the commander says as she twirls the dagger in one hand. "You will accompany Wang back to Houfei's camp. I know you two don't like stealth quests but I need you two to remain discreet. Stay in that location undetected as long as possible. I want to know how many men Houfei has and what kind of weapons he has."

The governor couldn't keep her eyes off Wang and suddenly she felt bad for the man.

"Yes, commander. I'll go tell Xena about the plan."

"And you will make it seem like this was a pure accident, right Wang?"

He looks Arielle in the eye and frowns. She wrapped her hand around his throat, squeezing tightly. He coughed and struggled to breathe until he finally relented.

Gabrielle cringed. "Did he say anything about Princess Bosi?"

"Unfortunately I couldn't anything from him about that. If I had kept going he'd be dead. Perhaps we'll revisit that conversation." She pinched his cheek and he spat at her. "He's such a gentleman, am I right?"